A Few Thoughts…

From mathematician and author Marcus du Sautoy comes an article over at Seed magazine about number theory, and the number 42. The 42 is really just a coincidence, but has some big implications in the realm of the Riemann Zeta Moments, which in turn has implications on proving the famed Riemann Hypothesis. du Sautoy’s books are very good reads, if you like math that is, and explain some of the more complex number theory problems in great detail. The article lacks a bit in scientific detail, but I guess it is a magazine article and not a journal paper. Makes me want to read more about Riemann and the primes again, but it seems like ever time I walk into a bookstore and pick up what looks to be an interesting book on the subject, I end up realizing that I’ve already read it…which is pretty disappointing. Anyone out there got a good book on the subject? Something less that a grad-level text book, but more than something for the layman?
Seed: Prime Numbers Get Hitched

I’ve noticed my Gmail notifier has been greyed out the past couple of days, now I know why! There’s a new version out. This google blog mentions it, and the fact that it can handle plugins, which I guess I never looked into. The Gmail+Growl looks pretty cool, I’ll be checking that out tonight!

Official Google Blog: Mac Gmail Notifier update

Yes, that’s right – I said it.  Even more I did it tonight, a quick walk/jog, some time on a bike, and a few reps with the free weights to make sure my arms didn’t feel left out.  I need to get into the habit of exercising at least 3 times a week, and more than to just get in shape.  I have a bit of a cholesterol problem, and to make sure I don’t keel over at 35 or 40, I need to get that cleared up.  So, I’m substituting some fatty snacks with fruits (or trying to anyway), and getting out and at least walking/jogging for at least 30 minutes (until I can get up to a run for that length of time).  Maybe come this time next year Tim and I can breeze through the Heart Mini 15k as a warmup to the Flying Pig.

In other news, I need to get back into climbing when I can.  Time is the enemy on this one as I seem to always be busy with something.  I would like some chance to be home to relax too.  I miss climbing – it’s a lot of fun, and I really miss just completely having my arms pumped out – that is such a great feeling (unless you’re right at the end of a climb and you can’t feel your arms anymore, then it’s just frustrating).  Okay, now to the shower and then to bed.

Here’s a good read on the development switch over to XCode by the Adobe folks. I’ve played with XCode a bit (its free, why not), and it does leave me with a feeling that something is lacking. I didn’t know if I just haven’t gotten used to it, or what it was, but now I can see there are others (people who have to use it full-time, not just for hooby things) who are seeing shortcomings as well. I think the Apple folks will come up with a good tool eventually – its just not there yet. Maybe they’ll release something for Unix in general? I’m pretty quick with gvim though…

read more | digg story

Some researchers over at Saarland University have come up with a new design to handle ray-tracing on a chip as opposed to the reasterization methods of current graphics chips. All implemented in an FPGA, they were able to get 20fps on simple graphics and 10fps on complex scenes out of the 66MHz chip. Use of ASICs would run much faster. Could this be the wave of the future for new graphics cards?

(PDF Warning)

read more | digg story

This morning we had the kick-off meeting for the new men’s ministries at church. It was a great time – we ate like kings at Maggiano’s (which does a great breakfast for group meetings), and had a review of some of the activities we will be doing throughout the year. Then we heard a great message from Bro. Rusty Strange. He’s an amazing preacher if you ask me, and brought us a wonderful message about being the preachers of our own homes. Noah was the only man in the bible who was labelled as a Preacher of Righteousness, and the only people he preached to, the only ones he brought to the Lord were his own family. What an awesome responsibility.

I don’t have a family of my own now, but I hope that when I do I will make sure that my actions are directed by God. That’s what hit me this morning – the awesome responsibility of being the man of the family. More than just making sure the family is taken care of in this world, but making sure they are taken care of for after this world. As Bro. Strange put it, to make sure we aren’t buried at the edge of our inheritance, but that we see the full inheritance which God has for us. It was a truely amazing morning, which opened my eyes to the great need for this type of ministry in our world.

The other key point I got this morning was about Simon-Peter. Jesus told him that he prayed for him (which, would be an incredible thing to have said to you for one thing), and then told him that after he was converted, he was to strengthen his bretheren. God manifested in flesh told Peter that his duty when he became a Christian was to help out his brother. Too often these days men have no where to go for comfort and solace when things are going bad. But there are many men who have been through situations before. I know when I have a family I will definitely want to talk to my dad, and other men of God about how to handle situations. The Man Alive men’s ministries at church will make sure that support structure is in place for me, and all other men in the church. We have an awesome responsibility in God’s plan – and we can work together to keep each other strong in times of need. It was a great time this morning, and I look forward to where it will go from here!

With Verizon’s mobile web service is a whopping $5.00 a month, I decided I’d jump in and give it a whirl. It’s GREAT! I can check my gmail account on my phone – see what the weather forecast is, even get a radar picture. I can look at news, both local and national, which is very handy since I don’t sit on the internet all day anymore, and I don’t listen to the radio during the day. And I’m always on the go, so it just makes sence to be able to look at these things from wherever I am. If I can’t get to the internet, I want the internet brought to me. And for $5/month, that’s not bad!

So I was going to send out an email, when lo and behold there is a new tab in my contacts list called “groups!” I clicked on it, and I could create a list of contacts as a group! Simple, easy, and something I put in the suggestion box for GMail over a year ago! W00T!

Apparently this story was posted to digg 90 days ago or so…I’m a little behind the times…

So I got to spend a little time working on using a custom firmware on my Linksys WRT54G. I decided to go with the DD-WRT firmware, which is based on the GPL version of the Sveasoft firmware before they went to a pay model. Anyway, I have to say I was slightly disappointed – not with the firmware in any way – it installed incredibly simply – just like installing a firmware from linksys. I was disappointed because I’ve been sitting on my couch sick most of the week and I wanted something to do! It just happened too fast!

I haven’t had time to play with all of the features yet, but it picked up everything from my previous settings. I’m going to have to play with it a bit to try and get a virtual LAN set up to play XBOX with friends w/o using live or kaid. That will be fun I think.

Okay – time for the Tylenol PM….

Google keeps coming out with some good products – sure there may be others out there that do similar things, but the integration of everything has been done very well. Â I hope that I can have it connect with iCal so I can keep my phone in sync with my Google Calendar!
TechCrunch » Exclusive Screenshots: Google Calendar